Travel Blogs from Osaka, Japan

After a long 8 hour train journey I finally reached Osaka and was delighted to find that there was a massive Japanese bath here which was great for relaxing at the end of the day. I spent a full day in Osaka and visited the castle (which was beautiful ...

... the 100YEN menu (cheap!) and got a 'McShaka Shaka Chicken' and the 'can't bugger it up international cuisine' large (which in Japan means enough to feed a 3 year old) french fries. For brekkie, Brad had some sort of version of a Bacon & Egg ...

I got up at 2.30pm, after getting to sleep close to 7. I had a head ache and didn't much feel like getting up. We lazed around for a while then got up to used the internet and do some laundry. We ate locally at an Italian not far from us. I couldn't ...

... , definitely good entertainment; and it's supposedly the largest ferris wheel in the world.
Then we moved on to the Osaka Aquarium Kaizukan.
Every book and website claims this is the best aquarium ever, so I was very excited - but ...

We had a really busy schedule coming up. We were off to Hong Kong on Saturday, then back in to china, across to Vietnam and on to Thailand all in the space of 2 and half weeks. There was a lot of planning to do. The most important thing we had yet to ...

... the next morning, but we ended up staying there until late and having a lot of fun and meeting some great people from
Holland, Japan and America. Saturday morning we went back to Korea and stayed in Busan that night. We went to a student ...

... self-introductions by each of us. Then several groups of students made presentations to teach us about Japanese cooking, events in Japan, and Japanese sweets. Around 2:00, after the presentations, we were led upstairs to learn the art of calligraphy. ...

... the bus station is, since it's not connected to the train terminal. I could take the train from this station into central Osaka.
I got it now. Duh.
Despite what it sounds like, their English is passable - I know what they mean from the context ...

The time has come the walrus said! We left our apartment, and we leave Osaka tomorrow. I've been slacking on this blog huh? Did I tell you about Fushimi Inari - the gates? Did I tell you about dinner with Jack's student Seou? Or ...

For a Saturday adventure, Alison (another Kobe JET) and I embarked on an adventure to the Osaka International House to learn about Sadou (the art of tea ceremony.)
Apart from walking around looking for the place for 45 ...

... hopped on the monorail and 30 minutes later were at the designated park, which appeared to have been besieged by a good proportion of Osaka's population. It was heaving! This was the place and time to see and be seen as Hitomi later told us.
So, ...

... rain has stopped but it is still cloudy and windy. Students are going for one more buffet breakfast before boarding the bus to Osaka Castle! Everyone is looking forward to being reunited with family and friends tonight! See you ...

September 29, 2012 Bryan, Graeme and I all wanted to see a baseball game while in Japan and the opportunity presented itself in Osaka. We had heard, even before arriving in Osaka that the local Hanshin Tigers were playing the team from Kobe on ...

... . You could be listening to an entire conversation in German and pick out all the English words; they leave them as English.
However, in Japan, when I try to talk to a sales clerk in the store, I've learned to add extra vowels in the middle of my words ...

We decided to take a day away from visiting the hundreds of world heritage sites in Japan and had a fun day at Universal Studios Japan.
Pete was in heaven when we went on the Back to the Future ride in a Delorean (some people just never grow up!).
...

... Ms. Piersma's grandpa) for not updating this blog sooner. Believe it or not, the 'Net is not as easy to access in Japan as I'd thought. I'd imagined that WiFi would flow through the streets like water. Not so! We've had to rely on computers in hotel ...

... And last but not least before I head back to Shikoku here is the main reason for my money issues: http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+102192 Thanks MasterCard! And thanks Bank of Scotland for not informing me. Anyone else travelling to ...

... Not quite a pasty but we are in Japan. There was still a big line up for people going in for lunch. Patience is something necessary in Japan, lucky we are not here in peak time! I decided to do my shopping part then so went back into some of the shops. I ...

... . It happened to fall on Brittany's birthday, so we can think of it as how we celebrated her birthday in Japan. :) The Hanshin Tigers of Osaka played the Baystars from Yokohama. We bought tickets at a convenience store ticket machine a few weeks earlier. ...

... reserved for politicians and criminals, it is the apology bow. Now we knew the bowing protocol, it was time to see real Japan. Osaka is the third largest city, they do a lot of laughing down here as they are famous for their humour, seafood and ...

... we were unable to get tickets due to a potent combination of our own inability to plan ahead and the illegality of scalping in Japan. Defeated, we headed back to the train station. Along the way, we stopped into a Korean restaurant for dinner. ...

Today we went to NINJA TOWN (slice) (slice) we got to dress up as NINJAS and see the REAL NINJA WEAPONS!!! AND REAL NINJAS!!!! they had a lot of hideing plzaces and a scroll to become a ninja we also got given ninja stuff (fake) they were cool we had ...

Bullet train to Osaka. Since it was my last bullet train, and my last long distance rail journey in Japan, I treated myself to a very Japanese lunch of a rather expensive ekiben (eki bento - train lunchbox) and a large Asahi. The ekiben (all 1300 yen of ...

At 3:30 pm in Osaka and 2:30 a.m. in Knoxville, we arrived in Japan. We were greeted at the aiport by Tamami, our tour guide, and Mr. Suginaga, a Panasonic representative. The airport is on a man made island and was originally 18 feet above sea level. ...